1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an information processing apparatus, method and program, and more particularly, to an information processing apparatus and method and a program, for displaying a content selection view the user can instinctively manipulate and allowing the user to easily select, to his or her taste or mood, any one of various kinds of contents indicated in the view.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has become increasingly popular a method of taking music data into a personal computer (PC) by ripping a music from a CD (compact disk) having music pieces recorded therein or by downloading a desired music from a music distribution server by the use of a music distribution service. The user transfers a content such as music data thus downloaded to his PC to a portable device (PD), and carries the PD with him for enjoying the content at any time everywhere.
However, such a PD should have a high portability but its display screen is limited in physical size. On this account, there have been proposed many methods intended for allowing the user to search and select more easily a user-desired one or ones of contents and applications recorded in the PD even while the display screen is physically limited in size.
For example, the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-330613 (will be referred to as “Patent Document 1” hereunder) proposes a portable multimedia device designed to provide a scrolled display of a list of applications' titles (name) by dragging on a touch panel for selection of applications whose names are displayed in an options window in a display area as options.
Also, the United States Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-0095096 (will be referred to as “Patent Document 2” hereunder) proposes a portable multimedia device designed to provide a scrolled linear display of a list of content titles (name) by operating a rotary input device for easier search for a desired one of the contents.
Further, the United States Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-0055446 (will be referred to as “Patent Document 3” hereunder) proposes a portable multimedia device designed to provide a hierarchical display of a genre, artist and album title (name) of a music and the name (title) of the music itself for easier search for a user-desired content.
The above-mentioned proposals are rather effective for searching a music when the user already knows it in case the PD has recorded therein only such a number of contents as the user can recognize them or many contents the user has ripped or downloaded by preference, for example.
That is, in case the PD has recorded therein such a number of contents as the user can recognize, a desired one is easily found in the scrolled display of all the contents as in the Patent Documents 1 and 2. Also, in case the PD has recorded therein many contents the user has ripped or downloaded by preference, for example, the user can easily search his desired content in an hierarchical display as in the Patent Document 3 because the user roughly knows the names of the recorded contents and words related to the contents, such as album name, genre or artist's name in case the contents are music pieces.